


make this place your home

by Nearly



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Light Angst, M/M, POV William "Dex" Poindexter, bitty brings cookies, nostalgic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 03:24:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20221012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nearly/pseuds/Nearly
Summary: "Hey, Poindexter," Nursey says, coming back over to take Dex's hand and tug him into the kitchen, "Dance with me."aka Dex doesn't like silence, but he really likes Nursey.





	make this place your home

**Author's Note:**

> another tumblr prompt fill, for my lovely friend Liv <3
> 
> title is from Home by Phillip Phillips.

“Where do y’all want these?” Bitty calls from down the hall, as Dex makes it up the stairs carrying a box of books. It’s moving day, a week or so after graduation, and the entire team had volunteered to help him and Nursey move into their new place--even Jack, who had managed to talk his way out of an afternoon practice so he could come--so the apartment complex is full of hockey boys throwing chirps back and forth and jostling each other up the stairs. It’s nice, Dex thinks, having them all here, even the ones who graduated years before. They’re still a team, even off the ice.

“Just, uh,” Nursey starts, from a few feet in front of Dex, arms full of bedsheets. He glances back, and Dex shrugs, so he calls back to Bitty as he heads through the door, “Put them wherever, we’ll sort them out later.”

Ransom and Holster barrel up the stairs next, each holding on to a box for dear life, and rush past where Dex is dawdling in the hallway. The boxes are both faintly rattling. 

“I win!” he hears Holster cheer as he makes it through the door, and then faintly from inside, Nursey says, “Those better not be my mom’s plates!”

Dex grins and finally makes his way into the apartment. He sets the books down and looks around. Bitty has somehow managed to sneak in a container of cookies, Holster is sheepishly peeking into a box to make sure he didn’t break anything, and Shitty is over by the fridge handing out the beers he's brought along. Ransom has disappeared back down the stairs, and Dex can't see Jack anywhere, so he assumes he's gone back too.

Nursey pauses to throw a few windows open, and then they've got summer air blowing through and the voices of the tadpoles mixed in with the sounds from the street below as they help unload the truck. Chowder shows up with Farmer at some point, and Lardo follows soon after, stopping by the fridge on her way in so Shitty can ruffle her hair and shove a drink in her hand.

Dex makes a few more trips up and down the stairs, but they really don't have much to move, and they're done pretty quickly. Nursey comes over and presses a kiss to his cheek as he drops the last box off in the front hall. Dex grabs his hand and tangles their fingers together, and just stands for a moment to take in the little party they've got going in their living room. 

Whiskey, Tango and Ford have corralled Lardo and Farmer into a game of cards with a deck they dug out of a bag somewhere, and they're sprawled out on the floor giggling and slapping cards out of each other's hands. Jack has an arm around Bitty where they're leaving against the counter in the kitchen, talking to Shitty, who's gesticulating wildly with his beer can. Chowder is sitting between Ransom and Holster against one wall, his phone in his hands, and he must be playing some game because there's music coming from the phone speakers and Ransom and Holster are both egging him on from behind. It's just like the Haus, loud and full of energy and full of his friends, and Dex thinks, _ I could get used to this. _

*

They spend a few hours pretending to sort through boxes as an excuse to keep the day going, but all too soon, the impromptu party is over. It's getting later in the evening, and if this was a proper kegster they'd be nowhere near the end--but some of the younger guys have class the next morning, and Jack has practice back in Providence, and Bitty as usual is begging them all to be sensible and get some sleep. He herds the little group out the door, even with Nursey insisting he and Dex don't mind. 

"Y'all take care now," he says, producing another tin of cookies from somewhere--Dex has no idea where he keeps them all--and pressing it into Dex's hands. "I'd better be seeing y'all safe and happy at Jack's game next weekend, alright?"

"Yes, sir," Dex laughs, and lets Bitty hug him goodbye. Farmer tows Chowder out the door after he spends a few minutes trying not to cry because, "I can't believe we graduated, guys, you're my best friends, and I'm so happy you're happy, and I'm going to call you everyday--" 

He and Farmer have a rental house a few blocks away, so Dex isn't really sure what that's all about. They planned it that way, so the group of them could still be close enough to see each other regularly. Chowder gets excited about anything, though, so he'll just go with it. 

Lardo and Shitty are the last to leave, with a promise from Shitty that he'll host a kegster any time they want, even if it's not at the Haus.

"Call me if you want a proper hauswarming party, brah," he insists as he heads out, "I'll supply the tub juice." 

And then, just like that, the door clicks shut behind Lardo and it's just Dex standing with a tin of cookies in his hands, staring at his little apartment. It seems bigger now that it's not full of hockey players. Almost too big, too empty. 

He's used to having a lot of people around. In Maine, before Samwell, he grew up with a whole litter of siblings and his parents in the same house. There was always someone else in the house with him, and it was rare to not hear music playing from someone's bedroom, or a conversation down the hall. Then he moved to Samwell, and he had a roommate the first year, and a whole floor full of other guys in his dorm building. Moving into the Haus meant rowdy hockey players all hours of the day, and music, and video games; Dex is pretty sure he's gone his whole life without being in a house that was silent, and now here he is in his own home, and it's so quiet it's ringing in his ears. 

He feels Nursey take the cookie tin from him, hears him place it on the kitchen counter, and the sound of metal on tile almost seems to echo into the empty room. He doesn't like it at all. 

And then, startling him out of his thoughts and back into the present, there's the soft sound of music. He glances over and Nursey is there in the kitchen, his hand on the radio, which is playing some slow, soulful love song. It crackles every now and then with static, because it's an old thing Dex brought with him from Maine, and it's on the same terrible station its been on for years, because the button got stuck when he was a kid and he never got it unstuck. It's stupid, and Nursey could just use his phone for Spotify if he wanted music, because Dex knows he's paying for premium--but somehow, it feels right. Maybe it's because this old radio is something that reminds Dex of growing up in Maine, or maybe just because it's Nursey and he's dumb and poetic like that, and Dex loves him for it. 

"Hey, Poindexter," Nursey says, coming back over to take Dex's hand and tug him into the kitchen, "Dance with me." 

"Neither of us can dance, Nurse," Dex points out. He knows it doesn't matter. 

"We'll figure it out," Nursey responds, and Dex huffs a little laugh, letting himself be pulled in close and swayed back and forth in a parody of a slow dance. 

"You're such a sap," he mutters. 

"Sure, but you signed up for that," Nursey says. Dex grins and presses a kiss to his neck. 

"Yeah, I did." 

They stay like that for a song or two, crooning and crackling from the radio. The sun dips low and shines in through their windows, with nothing to block it out because their blinds are all still packed away in boxes on the floor.

"Maybe we should get a dog," Dex says after a moment. Nursey stumbles in surprise at the suggestion, and then yelps as he trips backwards over one of their old Samwell hockey bags and goes tumbling to the floor.

"Chill," he says, a bit breathlessly, "but let's finish unpacking first." 

Dex starts laughing and flops down next to him on the tile. They lie there for a bit, the sound of a shitty pop song drifting down from the counter. Nursey curls into him and wraps his arms around his waist, and it's not exactly comfortable, but he pulls him closer anyway. It's still quiet, but it's not so bad now that the radio is going and he's got an armful of boyfriend to fend it off, and Dex thinks, _ yeah, I could get used to this. _

**Author's Note:**

> as usual, I didn't edit this. not sure why I even bother saying that at this point. 
> 
> if you liked it, leave a comment! tell me why! tell me your favourite line! I love hearing what people think about my work <3
> 
> and finally, come hang with me on [tumblr!](https://nearly-writes.tumblr.com/) I love to take prompts if you've got one to send!


End file.
